This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
03/21/2018 08:30 AMIf you visit Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter on Wednesday afternoons, you might come across Tom Cherry quietly going about his volunteer work to assist an organization he feels is full of heroes. What you may not know is this volunteer is a bit of a champion for animals, in his own right.
An attorney, Tom signed on to help at the shelter about four years ago. In December 2017, he retired from a law firm after 41 years and took up pro-bono animal advocacy. Tom’s also one of the state’s first court-appointed pro-bono animal advocates under Desmond’s Law. The groundbreaking animal abuse legislation, enacted in 2016, grew from a case involving a Branford dog, Desmond, who was starved, beaten, and strangled to death by his owner in 2012.
Desmond’s Law currently uses 12 pro-bono lawyers and a cadre of volunteer UConn law students to provide investigative insight, offer recommendations, and share facts they’ve gathered to assist courts in determining the outcome of cases where cats and dogs have been abused.
“It’s a new law, and the only law in the whole country like it,” says Tom. “Because it’s so new, many judges and many prosecutors are afraid of it or don’t understand it. There are some that get it.”
Tom says animal abuse can link to other abusive actions in people.
“I’d like people to better appreciate how much animal cruelty needs attention in life. There are connections to sociopathic abuse. What people have to be aware of, is where they see animal abuse, you have a future social problem.”
As someone who understands the value of animal advocacy, Tom is incredibly appreciative of Cosgrove Animal Shelter’s no-kill policy to rescue, rehabilitate, and re-home every animal it encounters. He also feels the shelter deserves more municipal funding from the two towns it serves, Branford and North Branford.
“The work is underfunded,” says Tom. “That’s one of the reasons I’m motivated to volunteer. I see them sacrificing. I don’t think town management understands and appreciates the significant struggle it is to operate that shelter, and I don’t know how much they appreciate what people there do as animal control officers. They’re like social service workers—they get called out in the middle of the night. And the volunteers put so much time in and the community donates so much money, which saves the town budget money."
“This is a place that is building community with an amount of community support that’s extremely unique,” he continues. “I’d really encourage anyone in management positions in local government to come down and visit the shelter and learn more.”
On Sunday, March 25, Cosgrove shelter supporters can show they care by coming out to the fundraising annual Pasta Dinner at the Italian American Club in Branford. Proceeds from tickets, a 50/50 raffle, and other efforts planned for the family-fun evening will benefit shelter needs not supported by municipal funding. The dinner serves up pasta and meatballs contributed by local restaurants and makes the meal complete with garden salad, Italian bread, dessert, coffee, and soda. Wine and beer are available for purchase, and music and singing is a part of the annual entertainment fun.
Tom and his wife share their Madison home with their dog Nym, a Brittany spaniel, and a cat, Zen, adopted from the Cosgrove shelter. Tom says municipal shelters like Cosgrove Animal Shelter are few and far between. “
“The officers who work there are amazing, and the attitude the people there have about all animals make it a love nest. We’ve had fish there, snakes—somebody [recently] brought in seven very sad, under-kept and poorly treated rats!”
In addition for caring for animals of all kinds, the shelter goes to lengths to give every animal its best chance of finding a forever home.
“The problem with animals in many shelters is the longer they’re in there, the less presentable they are; they deteriorate,” says Tom. “One of the things they do very nicely [at Cosgrove] is get other animal trainers in there to personalize and socialize the dogs and keep them engaged.”
During his weekly work at the shelter, Tom throws himself into organizing inventory that includes items the shelter desperately needs more of, and those things that really aren’t as useful as one may think.
“One of reasons I wanted to work at shelter, and continue to work at shelter, is I understand it from the inside, literally from the nitty gritty of storage problems,” says Tom. “We get a lot of donations, but people will just dump stuff, too.”
Rather than donating a cage or items belonging to a deceased pet, check out the shelter’s Facebook page to find a list of current items needed. Better yet, make a monetary donation, Tom suggests.
“That’s one of the challenges is getting things organized, because the animal control officers have enough to do. One of my reasons for going there is I really do think they need hands-on support,” he says.
Tom says the shelter’s animal control officers are “the core of that place. They make it go day to day, together with some volunteers who work far more than I, and have been doing so for years. It’s a great place.”
In addition to saving animals, shelter programs like having kids read to animals, or offering the wildly popular Animal Camps each summer, help build critical empathy skills that can strengthen understanding and support of ethical treatment of animals.
“It’s raising the level of consciousness, really,” says Tom. “Any time I have an opportunity to talk to anyone who is adopting an animal, or dropping it off, I always want them to know it’s a tremendous responsibility to take care of an animal. To me, all I’m trying to do is something that is good for the greater good.”
Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter’s annual Pasta Dinner will be held Sunday, March 25, from 3 to 6 p.m. at Branford Italian American Club, 46 Hamre Lane. All tickets ($20 adults, $10 for children 12 and under) can be purchased online at www.branfordanimalshelter.org (click on donate; write “Pasta Dinner” in notes). Tickets purchased online will be held at door. Tickets can be purchased the Dan Cosgrove Animal Shelter, 749 East Main Street, Branford.